My main friend in the wild (i.e., my backyard) is Crow. Yes, he's a
crow. It's fortunate that his name matches his species, no? I consider
it a miracle.
The secret to becoming a crow's friend is peanuts. They live
for peanuts. Now, here's the thing: they know I have peanuts yet they
don't pester me for them. They don't come right up to my bedroom window,
say, and caw loudly and incessantly to wake me up because they want to
be fed. They're tasteful crows. They wait for me to wake up on my
own. I would say, if I had to pick their exact species, that they're
brunch crows. They always let me sleep until a sophisticated hour. And
even then, they don't caw. They simply wait in their assigned tree,
knowing that I'll get up in my own time and feed them.
However, they know that when it snows I really really want to get some peanuts out to them, fast-like. And so -- at a tasteful hour, say, 10:30 am or so -- if there is snow on the ground, they do caw to wake me up. The snow is their get-out-of-jail free card; they know they can do this with impunity.
So
this morning at 10:30, I heard a few tasteful caws -- not too loud but
not too soft either -- and I knew there was snow on the ground. I got
out of bed, opened the curtains and there they were, waiting patiently.
I
gave them a slew of peanuts and a smattering of sunflower seeds.
Shortly thereafter, other birds and then some squirrels joined in.
Seriously, is there anything better than seeing a brilliant red cardinal
in the snow? It's a lovely way to wake up. And I owe it all to Crow.
Don't tell me that crows are noisy. They're tasteful.
